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Australia's measles elimination under threat

TANYA NOLAN: Australia is doing better than most countries in the global fight against one of the world's deadliest and most contagious and untreatable diseases.

But today a measles expert is raising concerns that progress could be lost.

While high immunisation rates have seen Australia effectively eliminate measles, Dr Peter MacIntyre from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, says that status is under threat.

The Australian Medical Association says anti-vaccination campaigns are partly to blame.

Simon Lauder reports.

SIMON LAUDER: Measles is still one of the world's leading causes of death among young children.

It's highly contagious and there's no effective treatment.

The president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Steve Hambleton:

STEVE HAMBLETON: We worry about the flu - the average person with the flu will infect two other people.

The average person with measles can infect up to 20 other people.

SIMON LAUDER: The good news is that measles is one of the few infectious diseases which can be eliminated, thanks to a highly effective vaccine.

Australia's immunisation program was responsible for a major achievement in 2008 when elimination status was declared for Australia. That means any measles which is present in Australia came in from elsewhere.

But there was an outbreak of measles in NSW last year and now there are concerns the disease could take hold here again.

The director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, Dr Peter Macintyre:

PETER MACINTYRE: There are kids who fall through the cracks, and it was particularly those children in the older age group - 10 to about 18 - who were showing up in the measles outbreak that happened in western and south-western Sydney over the last couple of years.

SIMON LAUDER: What did the outbreak of last year do to our elimination status?

PETER MACINTYRE: Well, I guess had it continued for much longer than it did, we would have got o the point where we would have had continued measles transmission going on for over a year, and that would have meant we could no longer say we didn't have home-grown measles.

But this could happen in another few years' time as more people who are susceptible to measles sort of build up in local areas.

So it is a wake-up call, and it's telling us that although we're doing well, we need to further strengthen our efforts to ensure that we are catching everyone who may be falling through the cracks for some reason at the moment.

SIMON LAUDER: Dr Macintyre says some Australian districts have a greater risk of a measles outbreak because of lower immunisation rates.

PETER MACINTYRE: Clearly, there are still some areas, such as parts of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, and scattered throughout the country, where there are higher levels of people who aren't accepting immunisation.

STEVE HAMBLETON: Well our elimination status is under threat because there are pockets of decreasing immunisation of our children.

And it's northern New South Wales, it's south-east Queensland, where immunisation rates are dropping because of conscientious objectors and because of people actively working against immunisation.

We will see outbreaks in areas where immunisation rates are falling, and they will be sustainable, and we'll have to close schools, we'll have all sorts of things that we'll need to do to actually decrease and stop those outbreaks.

SIMON LAUDER: The solution, says Dr Peter Macintyre, is to follow the US example where immunisation papers are routinely checked as a condition of school enrolment.

PETER MACINTYRE: I think it's a wake-up call to us to do something bigger and more definitive and the logical approach there would be to get a true partnership between education and health, so that being fully immunised is seen as, as important when you start school or change school as all the other things schools check up on.

SIMON LAUDER: Dr Macintyre is presenting his findings at an infectious diseases conference in Canberra.